Shoulder Warmup

Wendy’s Scap Attack

Shoulder Warmup

The shoulder is an awe-inspiring structure.

Lots of tiny (and some sizable) muscles responsible for a HUGE range of motion. Before we touch a hold, plastic or rock, warming up helps wake up the joints and more importantly, identify any areas that might need a little extra attention before we go ham on the wall or in our training.

The setup:

– Straight arms (locked elbows).
Why? Because this is a back/scapular warm up. We don’t need to overcompensate range of motion with our biceps or anterior (fancy word for frontside) delts. It’s not a competition. It’s just a warm up.
–Do engage the biceps and triceps the whole time. Important to build good habits and protect that elbow and surrounding tendon goodness.

Note from the editor:

While filming Wendy I learned that, for a ton of little strange reasons, keeping your shoulders rolled “back and down” while hanging from things is not the ideal way to engage your shoulders.

Instead imagine you’re trying to point your armpits forward – create a little interior rotation to engage and protect that area while arboreally loaded (hanging)

Shoulder Shrugs

Literally just that. Shrug up and down. Without bending your elbows, pull your shoulders away from your ears as far as you can go.
Let your armpits come up to your ears.

This isn’t a relaxed position. Stay tight and strong, even when you’re long!

Circle Shrugs

(both directions)
Hit all four corners of that range of motion!
Up and back- down and front
Up and front- down and back
Hit all four corners doing circles in the opposite direction!

Hanging Pelvic Tilts

(Or as I like to call them, air twerks)

Hands down the hardest part of the warmup.
– Start in that straight arm dead hang, like you were in the shrugs (tight and long!)
– Stick that booty out! Think Instagram influencer booty. This position is called anterior pelvic tilt, tilting the top of the pelvic bone forward.
– Squeeze those lower abs and tuck that tailbone under! Like in yoga, or a scared dog with it’s tail between its legs. This position is called posterior pelvic tilt, tilting the top of the pelvic bone backwards.

Where to put this in your routine?
After a few minutes of heart rate raising movement, one set of 5 reps of each exercise is perfect to prime your shoulders for a great movement session!
*Take note if any of the positions or movements felt a little tweaky and be kind to yourself while you crush.